September 2016

Hello there,

It has been another busy month here at Customer Service Institute of Australia. 

While I’ve been on the road with the judging panel for the upcoming Australia Service Excellence Awards, the CSIA team in Sydney has launched a national competition to find Australia’s very own Customer Service Champion!

The competition celebrates International Customer Service Week (October 3 - 7), and endeavours to spotlight professionals who go above and beyond to create connections with customers. Find out more about how to enter in the newsletter below.

We’re also counting down to this year’s Australian Service Excellence Awards on Wednesday, 26 October, which is proudly supported by Salesforce. If you haven’t booked your table at the awards, there’s still time!

At this year’s event we will reveal which companies are providing the friendliest customer service in Australia. Read more about our exciting new award category – The Friendly Awards – below. 

Sincerely,

Anouche Newman - CEO

International Customer Service Week - the search is on for Australia’s Customer Service Champion

In the lead up to International Customer Service Week, CSIA has launched a national competition to find Australia’s very own Customer Service Champion.

If you know someone in your team or organisation who goes out of their way to provide customers with outstanding service, then please nominate them by telling us in 50 words or less how and what they do to achieve this, and share a picture of them at work doing what they do best.

This a great opportunity to nominate someone in your team who deserves some praise. The winner will be profiled in the CSIA Quarterly magazine and will receive a professional five-year CSIA membership valued at $2,079. The winner’s employer will also receive a one-year CSIA Silver Corporate Membership, resulting in a total prize package worth more than $4,000.

This is a game of skill so be creative with your submission. Entries are open until 5.00pm, Thursday, 6 October 2016. 
 

The Australian Service Excellence Awards are fast approaching. Have you got your tickets?  

The countdown is on to the 15th annual Australian Service Excellence Awards (ASEAs), with just four weeks to go until we reveal Australia’s leading customer service organisations and individuals.

The winners will be announced at a gala presentation dinner at Melbourne’s Crown Palladium Ballroom on Wednesday, 26 October, and we are delighted to confirm that Salesforce is a supporting partner of this year’s event. The Salesforce team will play an important role in making the night one to remember. Stay tuned for more on this soon.

If you haven’t secured your table for the night, then please jump on the link below and make sure you don’t miss out. Tickets are selling fast! It’s going to be a fantastic evening and we can’t wait to see you all there.

Introducing The Friendly Awards

As part of the upcoming Australian Service Excellence Awards, we are proud to officially announce a new award category - The Friendly Awards – which recognise Australia’s friendliest companies.

A recent EY Sweeney study commissioned by CSIA revealed that friendliness is the biggest factor in delivering a great customer experience. In fact, twice as many Australians see friendliness as the key factor compared to the quality or accuracy of the service itself.  

Friendly service is therefore essential to any business’ bottom line. This new award category is based on consumers’ experience with leading Australian brands. CSIA has polled 2,000 Australians to identify the providers of the friendliest customer service across 15 key industries.

More than 300 companies have been considered and the winners will be announced at the Australian Service Excellence Awards on Wednesday, 26 October. 

CSIA CEO to judge the inaugural Finder Innovation Awards 

CSIA is delighted to announce that CEO Anouche Newman will lend her expert opinion as a judge at the inaugural Finder Innovation Awards this November.

Hosted by Finder.com.au, Australia’s most-visited comparison site, the awards will recognise the most innovative uses of technology by Australia’s financial service providers, telecommunications companies, and online stores.

Anouche will judge the Best Online Customer Service category, and any company offering services to Australian customers in the listed award fields is welcome to enter. 

Nominations are still open and entries close on Friday, 7 October, so if your company is at the forefront of technology we encourage you to enter.

To find out more, visit www.finder.com.au/innovation-awards

Corinium’s Chief Customer Officer Forum launches in Sydney

CSIA is proud to partner with Corinium Global Intelligence for its Chief Customer Officer Forum Sydney, a premiere event for Customer Experience Executives that will be held on Monday, 28 November and Tuesday, 29 November at Pullman Sydney Hyde Park.

Forming part of Corinium's Global Series, the Chief Customer Officer Forum Sydney is set to be a highly interactive event that provides a platform for senior customer experience executives to assess the most critical challenges and opportunities in ensuring corporate activities exceed the expectations of their customers.

CSIA members are being offered an exclusive 15% VIP discount if they register to attend. For more information, please visit www.chiefcustomerofficersydney.com/csia-discount-offer/